The new Penal Code (1995) retains the death penalty...

The new Penal Code (1995) retains the death penalty for 13 offenses as opposed to the 30 offenses of the previous code. The death penalty has been abolished for women and does not apply to minors under eighteen. There exists provision for commuting the death penalty to a 25 year sentence, but life imprisonment does not exist. Under the new code death-qualifiable offenses are: premeditated murder with aggravated circumstances; rape; forced sex satisfaction in perverted form; armed attack aimed at starting military operations; breaking of laws and customs of war; genocide; high treason; terrorism; making an attempt on life of the President of the Republic; espionage; organization of the criminal community; smuggling of chemical, biological and nuclear arms and other kinds of mass-destruction armaments; illegal drug or psychotropic substances sale. On August 29, 1998, the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) removed the death penalty from the Penal Code as a punishment for 5 of the above offenses: forced sex satisfaction in perverted form; breaking of laws and customs of war; making an attempt on life of the President of the Republic; espionage; smuggling of chemical, biological and nuclear arms and other kinds of mass-destruction armaments. In Uzbekistan there is no data available on the death penalty, because many cases are subject to the Official Secrets Act, especially those concerning national security, which come under the jurisdiction of the security service that is answerable solely to the head of the Islamic State Islam Karimov. Therefore, we have no way of knowing how many inmates or condemned prisoners there are, how many executions have been carried out, or even how many prisons exist in the country.